2.Korinther 3 | New International Reader’s Version

1 Are we beginning to praise ourselves again? Some people need letters that speak well of them. Do we need those kinds of letters, either to you or from you?

2 You yourselves are our letter. You are written on our hearts. Everyone knows you and reads you.

3 You make it clear that you are a letter from Christ. You are the result of our work for God. You are a letter written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God. You are a letter written not on tablets made out of stone but on human hearts.

4 Through Christ, we can be sure of this before God.

5 In ourselves we are not able to claim anything for ourselves. The power to do what we do comes from God.

6 He has given us the power to serve under a new covenant. The covenant is not based on the written Law of Moses. It comes from the Holy Spirit. The written Law kills, but the Spirit gives life.

The greater glory of the new covenant

7 The Law was written in letters on stone. Even though it was a way of serving God, it led to death. But even that way of serving God came with glory. The glory lasted for only a short time. Even so, the people of Israel couldn’t look at Moses’ face very long.

8 Since all this is true, won’t the work of the Holy Spirit be even more glorious?

9 The law that condemns people to death had glory. How much more glory does the work of the Spirit have! His work makes people right with God.

10 The glory of the old covenant is nothing compared with the far greater glory of the new.

11 The glory of the old lasts for only a short time. How much greater is the glory of the new! It will last for ever.

12 Since we have that kind of hope, we are very bold.

13 We are not like Moses. He used to cover his face with a veil. That was to keep the people of Israel from seeing the end of what was passing away.

14 But their minds were made stubborn. To this day, the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. The veil has not been removed. Only faith in Christ can take it away.

15 To this day, when the Law of Moses is read, a veil covers the minds of those who hear it.

16 But when anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

17 Now the Lord is the Holy Spirit. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, freedom is also there.

18 None of our faces are covered with a veil. All of us can see the Lord’s glory and think deeply about it. So we are being changed to become more like him so that we have more and more glory. And this glory comes from the Lord, who is the Holy Spirit.

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English Standard Version

Ministers of the New Covenant

1 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you?

2 You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our* hearts, to be known and read by all.

3 And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.*

4 Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God.

5 Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God,

6 who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

7 Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses’ face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end,

8 will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory?

9 For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory.

10 Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it.

11 For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory.

12 Since we have such a hope, we are very bold,

13 not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end.

14 But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away.

15 Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts.

16 But when one* turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.

17 Now the Lord* is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord,* are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.* For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

The ESV^® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version^®) copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. ESV^® Text Edition: 2016. The ESV^® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers. Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved. The ESV^® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version^®) is adapted from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. All rights reserved.